Forgiveness
by WolfLuvr1977
Summary: Matt's brother has made a plan to corner and kill Sam, in order to end the situation peacefully Sam must face the past. Warning for angst. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE R AND R!
1. Chapter 1

Sam stepped out from behind the human barricade that was made up of Ed, Jules and Leah. He couldn't be a bystander to the situation anymore. It was his fault, he didn't need anyone to tell him that. Matt was dead because of him and he would have to carry that with him for the rest of his life. It was hopeless for him or Parker to try and talk Danny down. Matt was killed by his own friend and what Danny needed now was to see him, to see the man that caused his brother to come home in a body bag.

"Damn it Sam!" yelled Parker from inside the truck. He knocked some stuff over and stormed out to his team inside of the bank.

Sam stared down the barrel of the gun that Danny was pointing in his face. He knew his team couldn't fire with him in the way. There were two unknown gunman still on the loose in the bank, Wordy and Lou were still trying to locate and contain them.

Danny's anger roared inside of him at the sight of Sam Braddock. His hands began to shake. "This is him!" he thought, "This is your brothers so called friend!"

"Listen to me Danny." Sam finally spoke, "I know how your feeling because I feel the exact same way. And I know people have told you over and over again that it was an accident." he paused, almost unable to get his next words out, "But that's what it was Danny-"

"Shut up!" screamed Danny as he thrust the gun at Sam. Although he was standing 7 feet away from his target, Sam still took a step back.

Sam's voice began to shake, "Danny I'm sorry" he took a few steps forward closing the distance between him and the subject.

"Talk to me Ed!" Parker was now running up the staircase towards the 4th floor where one of his team members stood with a gun pointed at his head.

"This isn't going well boss" whispered Ed into his communications device, "Sam's getting closer to the gun and we can't fire with him in the way."

"I hear ya" said Parker, now only one flight of stairs away, "Spike, Wordy, how we doin'?"

Spike and Wordy had their heat sensors in their hands and were closing in on the first unknown gunman. "Almost there" said Wordy quietly.

Parker entered the door on the fourth floor and headed to the access door on the other side of the corridor. The scene laid out before him as he entered the room was not what he wanted to see. The human barricade that team one had made to keep Danny from seeing Sam was still intact even though Sam had broken free from their cover. He now stood less than 5 feet away from the barrel of Danny's gun trying to keep him from getting killed the same way his brother did.

"Sorry isn't going to change anything!" yelled Danny, tears of rage now filling his eyes "I will never get my brother back!"

"And I will never get my best friend back!" Sam replied calmly, a different kind of tears were filling his eyes. His frustration with himself was wrapping him in a tight hold and would not let go.


	2. Chapter 2

"Do you think I forgot? Do you think after all of that I haven't punished myself everyday for what happened. I've played it over and over again in my head trying to convince myself that there was nothing I could have done to change it."

"That's not enough!" Danny snapped. With every word that Sam spoke he convinced himself a little bit more to pull the trigger.

"No it's not!" Sam yelled back, "It's not because it's not going to bring Matt back and nothing will!"

"Boss?" Parker's undivided attention to the scene was broken when he heard Spikes voice over the com.

"Yeah, go ahead Spike" he said quietly, trying not to draw Danny's attention.

"We've got the first gunman, team three's taking him down and we're headed for the second one."

"Alright, lets pick up the pace. Things aren't going well down here." Parker could already tell things weren't going to end well. As soon as he found out that the subject was the brother of Sam's friend that got killed in Iraq he knew that this was not going to be easy. Then when he found out that Sam was the one who killed Matt, the whole situation seemed nearly impossible. A baby brother with a viable excuse to kill the man who killed his brother. What made matters worse were when he found out that there were two trained snipers loose in the building who were with Danny. He was out to kill Sam and everyone knew it. But Sam wouldn't back off, he felt that he had to do this. He had to make amends, it was the only thing that would calm Danny down. Parker, regretting his decision, let Sam go talk to Danny, as long as he stayed behind the team and didn't talk to him face to face. But the decision was made, what's done is done and now Parker would just have to deal with the present.

By now, Danny and Sam and traveled a good 6 feet from the rest of the team. Sam had dropped his constable training and was going off of pure emotion. He knew the only way to calm Danny down was to show him that he really was sorry for what he did.

"Don't say his name-"

"He was my best friend and I know that he wouldn't want his baby brother to rot in jail for the rest of his life!"

"If you really were his best friend than you should have killed yourself for what you did-"

"I tried!" snapped Sam, silence filled the scene. Danny stared into Sam's eyes and watched his tears fall down his face.


	3. Chapter 3

Wordy and Spike paused their search and looked at each other in shock and Jules was fighting the urge to go hug Sam like she did while they were still together and he had a rough day.

"I sat with a gun to my head for two days." Sam finally said, choking on his tears "But you know why I couldn't do it? Because I'm not a coward. I couldn't take the easy way out. I had to face what I did and accept it no matter how much I didn't want to."

Danny shook his head. He couldn't believe he was hearing this. After all of this planning he actually felt bad for Sam. He was second guessing himself after he was so sure he was finally going to end his problem. Ed noticed Danny's gaze turn towards the window on his left for a brief moment.

"If you're anything like your brother you won't kill me." Sam had now calmed down enough to say his words smoothly, "Because your brother wasn't a coward. If he was in your place, instead of getting rid of the man who killed you he would deal with your death no matter how hard it was."

"That doesn't change anything" Danny said quietly.

"It changes everything" Sam relaxed a little, he knew he had to before Danny would, "Instead of spending your life finding a way to kill me you can move on. You can meet a pretty girl and get married and have lots of kids. You can make Matt proud because he has a brother who doesn't take the easy way out. But you have to put down the gun Danny"

Parkers silence was disturbed when Wordy came in on the radio, "Boss. We've searched everywhere. The other gunman isn't in the building. Are we sure there's two of them?"

"Witnesses said they saw three gunman enter the building." said Parker.

"Hey Parker this is Donna. I was talking to some witnesses down here and one of them said they saw a man in black with a large duffel bag exit the building around back about 15 minutes ago." Parker was surprised to hear Donna's voice but this new information shocked him more.

Ed heard what Donna had just said and realized what was going on. The east side windows were level with the rooftop of the building next door. Then he remembered Danny's glance out of those windows. The other gunman was a decoy, a distraction from the real danger. A sniper.


	4. Chapter 4

As quietly as he could, Ed whispered into the com, "Boss, the other gunman's a sniper."

"You sure?"

"Positive. He's on the rooftop out of the east side windows and he's waiting for the signal to shoot Sam." The teams hearts started pounding as they realized the true severity of the situation. They had no idea what the signal might be and if they made a move they might as well pull the trigger on Sam themselves.

"Team three, theirs a sniper on the roof of the building to the east of our location. Stealth entry. He's got his sights set on Sam." Parker whispered into his com.

"Copy" came Donna's voice from the ground. Her team leader led the way to the building, keeping close to the walls to try and go unnoticed by the sniper.

Sam had heard the previous conversation and his heart started to pound. If he made one wrong move it would be the end for either him or Danny or both. Danny's hand had stopped shaking but the gun was still pointed at Sam's head. They had walked a good distance away from the rest of the team but Sam was still worried they could get hurt. He couldn't take that chance.

"What would your brother want Danny?" asked Sam, he took a step forward, Danny took one back. "What would he want you to become?"

Danny started to grow nervous and he glanced out the window to check on his plan B. If he backed out now he couldn't stop him. The signal was too simple, if the cops moved in he would shoot. There was no way around it. He knew what he had to do.

"He'd want me to be brave. He'd want me to be the kind of person that would give up their life to save someone else." Danny stared into Sam's blue eyes and knew that he was truly sorry, "I forgive you." As he said this he lowered the gun.

The room was silent for what seemed like minutes. But there were only seconds between Jules' step forward and the shot that rang out from the rooftop next door. It all happened so fast Sam didn't even feel pain as the bullet shot through his shoulder and entered Danny's chest as he tackled Sam to the ground.

Team three made it up to the rooftop just as the sniper fired. They apprehended the subject and feared the worst.

"Danny!" Sam saw the blood coming from Danny's chest, he was now hovering over him. On the other side of Danny was Ed applying pressure to the wound. Parker had already called for a medical team.

"I'm sorry Sam." said Danny weakly.

"You have nothing to be sorry for." Sam said, fighting back tears.

"This is the way its supposed to be. This is how I have to die"

"Don't talk like that!" Sam pleaded. After all of this he couldn't die.

"Thank you. For not forgetting him." Danny was calmer than he had been in years, "Can you do me a favor?"

Sam could see that his friends brother wasn't willing to fight. "Anything" he said after a few seconds.

"Don't forget me"

"Never" as Sam said this Danny let out his last breath. All of a sudden Sam felt very weak, not only was he hurting emotionally but blood was streaming from the wound in his shoulder. He fell back to the ground and stared at the ceiling and listened to people trying to get him to look at them. He couldn't look at anyone, he couldn't think. He didn't want to do anything but lie there and let himself slip into the darkness that was calling his name.


	5. Chapter 5

Its kinda making me sad that this is the last chapter. I've been thinking about writing more, possibly the aftermath and its effects on sam, or i might just write a sequel. review and tell me what you think. Thanks for following the story all the way through, its really really appreciated! and thanks to all of those that reviewed! :)

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Sam woke up a day later in the hospital. The small white room came as a shock to him. For a moment he had forgotten what had happened and then the memories all came flooding back. Danny, the gun, the sniper. Sam closed his eyes, wishing it was all a dream.

It took him a moment but he soon realized that Jules had fallen asleep with her head resting by his side and her hand in his. He looked to the other side of the room where Parker had fallen asleep in a chair. Even though he couldn't get the past day's events out of his head, he couldn't help but let out a small smile.

"Wordy would have stayed but I told him to get home to his kids." came Ed's voice from the doorway, "And you know how Spike gets at hospitals. I sent Leah out to get some coffee."

Sam winced when he moved his shoulder a little, forgetting it was the reason he was there.

"They said you might need surgery to fix that up." Ed said stepping into the room.

"I'm sorry." Sam said quietly, not getting the words out as strongly as he wanted.

"For what?" Ed was now standing at the end of Sam's bed.

"For putting you all through that. For putting your lives in danger for something that I did."

"I know." Ed remembered when Jules got shot and how responsible he felt because the shooter was after him, "I've been there." The two men looked at each other for a while, understanding each others experiences.

"You forgive me?" Sam's rough voice barely came out this time.

"There's nothing to forgive." Ed said this just as Jules woke up and noticed Sam was conscious.

"Your awake." She smiled.

Parker woke up a few minutes later and they all had words of comfort for Sam. None of it helped but Sam let them do it anyway because he knew that it made them feel better because they were doing something. He just needed time to go over what had happened and accept it. It was time to live by his words.

Wordy and Spike came later that morning, and they all stayed there until the nurse kicked them out. Parker was the last to leave.

"Sarge?" Sam said just before Parker went out of the door.

"Yeah Sammy?"

"About what I said. About trying to…" Sam could see by the way that Parker was nodding his head that he understood he was talking about the suicide part of the conversation between him and Danny.

"The past is the past" he said, understanding that Sam only needed him to know that he was okay now.

"Thank you" Sam said as he let the urge to sleep overtake him.


End file.
